You know you should be posting content. Your marketing guy said so. That LinkedIn article said so. Every podcast you listen to says so.
So last Tuesday, you finally sat down at 9 PM, exhausted from a day of job sites, and wrote a blog post about “Why Regular HVAC Maintenance Matters.” You posted it. Got three likes from your mom, your brother, and someone you don’t remember friending.
Nothing happened. No calls. No leads. No new customers.
Here’s the truth: random blog posts don’t work. But strategic, planned content? That’s a different story. Let me show you how to build a 90-day content calendar that actually drives phone calls—without becoming a full-time blogger.
Why 90 Days Is The Magic Number
Three months is perfect for contractors. Here’s why:
It matches your business seasons. Winter means furnace repairs and heating. Spring means AC prep and landscaping. You need content that aligns with what people are actually searching for right now, not six months ago.
It’s long enough to see results. Google needs time to find your content, rank it, and start sending you traffic. A 90-day cycle gives you enough runway to build momentum and measure what’s working.
It’s short enough to stay focused. A year-long calendar sounds great until life happens and you abandon it in February. Ninety days is manageable. You can batch-create content, stay on track, and actually finish what you start.
The Four Content Pillars Every Contractor Needs
Before you start scheduling posts, you need to know what kinds of content actually work for contractors. There are four main categories, and you need all of them.
Pillar 1: Emergency & Urgent Problems
This is your money-maker content. Someone’s basement is flooding at 2 AM. Their AC died in July. Their roof is leaking during a storm. They’re Googling frantically, and you want your content to show up.
Examples: “What to Do When Your Pipe Bursts,” “Signs Your Water Heater Is About to Fail,” “Is Sparking Electrical Outlet an Emergency?”
These posts capture people ready to hire TODAY. The goal isn’t to educate—it’s to make them call you.
Pillar 2: Maintenance & Prevention
This content keeps you busy during slow seasons and builds trust. It’s about preventing problems, not fixing emergencies.
Examples: “Spring HVAC Tune-Up Checklist,” “How Often Should You Clean Your Gutters?” “Annual Plumbing Inspection Guide”
These posts generate service agreement sign-ups and scheduled maintenance visits. They’re how you fill your calendar during shoulder seasons.
Pillar 3: Educational & Research
People in this category are shopping. They’re comparing options, checking prices, and doing homework before hiring anyone.
Examples: “How Much Does a Roof Replacement Cost in Phoenix?” “Tankless vs. Traditional Water Heater: Which Is Right for You?” “How Long Should an AC Unit Last?”
These posts won’t get immediate calls, but they position you as the expert. When they’re ready to buy, they remember you.
Pillar 4: Local & Trust Building
This is your “we’re one of you” content. It proves you’re a real local business, not some national franchise.
Examples: “Meet Our Lead Electrician, Dave,” “Before and After: Kitchen Remodel in [Your Town],” “Why We Only Hire Local Technicians”
This content builds the relationship. It turns you from “a contractor” into “OUR contractor.”
The Real Talk About DIY Content Creation
Here’s what nobody tells you: building and maintaining a content calendar takes TIME. Real time.
Writing one quality blog post takes 2-4 hours when you include research, writing, editing, finding images, formatting, and posting. That’s one post. A solid 90-day calendar needs 12-15 pieces of content minimum, plus social media posts, video scripts, and updates.
Do the math: that’s 30-50 hours of work every quarter. And that’s if you’re a decent writer who knows SEO. If you’re starting from scratch, double it.
Now here’s the hard question: What’s your time worth? If you bill $150 per hour for your actual contracting work, and you’re spending 40 hours per quarter writing blog posts instead of working on jobs, you just lost $6,000 in revenue to save maybe $2,000 in marketing costs.
That’s not smart business.
This is why most contractors who try to DIY their content quit after six weeks. It’s not that they’re lazy—it’s that they’re running a business and don’t have 10 hours a week to write blog posts.
The ContractorGEO Advantage:
A marketing agency like ContractorGEO can build your entire 90-day content calendar in a fraction of the time because we do this every day. What takes you 40 hours takes us 8-10 hours because we have templates, processes, and experience.
More importantly, we know what content actually converts for contractors. We’ve tested hundreds of topics across dozens of clients. We know that “5 Signs You Need Emergency Plumbing Service” will drive calls, while “The History of Modern Plumbing” won’t.
Here’s a real example: A painting contractor in Austin tried to build his own content calendar. After two months, he’d published four blog posts, gotten minimal traffic, and zero leads. He was frustrated and ready to give up.
ContractorGEO took over. We built a 90-day calendar targeting specific seasonal needs (interior painting in winter, exterior in spring, commercial projects in summer). We included emergency content (“Can You Paint in High Humidity?”), educational content (“How Long Should Quality Paint Last?”), and local trust-building content.
Within 90 days, his website traffic tripled. More importantly, he started getting 8-10 qualified leads per month from blog content alone. His content marketing ROI went from zero to about 15x. Why? Because we knew exactly what to write and how to structure it for both Google AND local customers.
Could he have learned to do this himself? Maybe. But it would’ve taken a year of trial and error, and he would’ve lost tens of thousands in opportunity cost.
Your 90-Day Content Calendar Template
Here’s a simple template you can follow. I’ll show you a month-by-month breakdown for an HVAC company as an example.
Month 1 (Winter Focus):
- Week 1: Emergency content – “5 Signs Your Furnace Needs Immediate Repair”
- Week 2: Local content – “Before & After: Heating Install in [Your Town]”
- Week 3: Maintenance content – “The Complete Furnace Tune-Up Checklist”
- Week 4: Educational content – “Should I Repair or Replace My Old Furnace? Cost Guide”
Month 2 (Transition to Spring):
- Week 5: Local Landing Page – “Now Serving [New Town Name] with AC Installation”
- Week 6: Emergency content – “What to Do When Your AC Won’t Turn On”
- Week 7: Maintenance content – “Spring AC Maintenance: Why It Matters”
- Week 8: Educational content – “How Much Does AC Installation Cost in [City]?”
Month 3 (Spring/Summer Prep):
- Week 9: Trust content – “Meet Our HVAC Technicians: [Names and Backgrounds]”
- Week 10: Emergency content – “Is Your AC Leaking Water? Here’s Why”
- Week 11: Educational content – “SEER Ratings Explained for [Your Climate]”
- Week 12: Promotional content – “Spring Special: $89 AC Tune-Up (Save $40)”
Notice the pattern? You’re mixing urgent, educational, local, and trust-building content. You’re not posting the same type every week because different people are at different stages of the buying journey.
The Secret: How This Content Works WITH Everything Else
Here’s what makes content marketing powerful: it doesn’t replace your other marketing—it multiplies it.
Your traditional SEO gets you ranking in Google. Your Google Business Profile gets you in the map pack. Your paid ads get you immediate visibility. All good.
But what happens when someone clicks through? If they land on a bare-bones website with just your services and phone number, most won’t call. They’ll click back and check out your competitors.
But if they land on a website with helpful articles answering their exact questions, case studies from their neighborhood, and content that proves you know your stuff? They’re calling YOU, not shopping around.
Here’s a specific example: An electrician was spending $3,000 monthly on Google Ads getting 40 clicks to his service page. He was converting maybe 10% for 4 leads monthly. His cost per lead was $750—ouch.
We added a content calendar strategy. His ads still went to the main service page, but we also created blog posts targeting questions like “How Much Does Rewiring a House Cost?” and “Signs You Need an Electrical Panel Upgrade.”
Now when people searched those questions organically, they found his blog posts. The posts had clear calls-to-action to schedule a free estimate. Within three months, he was getting an additional 12 leads monthly from organic blog traffic at basically zero incremental cost (since the content was already created).
So now he had 4 leads from ads (still spending $3,000) PLUS 12 leads from content (no ad spend). His total cost per lead dropped from $750 to $188. Same ad budget, way better results.
That’s the additive effect. Content makes everything else you’re doing work harder.
Why Your Marketing Partner Matters Here
Building a content calendar is one thing. Executing it while running a contracting business is another. And doing it in a way that actually scales your business? That requires experience most contractors don’t have.
When that Austin painting contractor’s leads jumped from 4 to 12 per month, he had new challenges. Could his team handle the volume? Did he need to hire? How should he prioritize the incoming leads?
ContractorGEO helped him through that because we’ve seen it dozens of times. We helped him implement a CRM to track leads, adjust his content strategy to focus on higher-margin projects (commercial work over residential touch-ups), and plan his hiring timeline.
Most marketing agencies will build you a content calendar and wish you luck. They don’t understand the operational side of scaling a contractor business—managing crews, handling seasonal fluctuations, dealing with supply chain issues, or navigating cash flow during growth.
That’s the difference between a vendor and a partner. A vendor delivers content. A partner helps you build a scalable business.
The Bottom Line: Content Works, But Only If You Actually Do It
Here’s the honest truth: content marketing is one of the highest-ROI marketing strategies for contractors. Blog posts don’t have an expiration date. One good piece of content can drive leads for years.
But it only works if you commit to it. Random posts whenever you feel like it won’t cut it. You need consistency, strategy, and content that’s actually designed to convert.
You have two realistic options:
Option 1: Dedicate serious time to learning content marketing, building calendars, writing posts, tracking results, and iterating. This is doable, but it will cost you 40-60 hours per quarter and probably six months of trial and error before you see real results.
Option 2: Partner with an agency that specializes in contractor content marketing, already knows what works, and can execute your 90-day calendar in a fraction of the time while you focus on running jobs and growing your business.
Neither option is wrong. But be honest about your time, your skills, and your priorities. Most successful contractors realize their time is worth more on job sites than behind a keyboard.
Your Next Step
Ready to build a content calendar that actually drives leads? Here’s how to get started:
1. Download the Template – Get our free “90-Day Content Calendar Template for Contractors” with pre-filled examples for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, and electrical businesses. It includes sample topics, keyword targets, and posting schedules.
2. Speak with Our Team – Schedule a 30-minute strategy session with a ContractorGEO content specialist. We’ll review your business, identify your highest-value content opportunities, and map out a custom 90-day plan tailored to your services and market.
3. Get a Free Content Audit – We’ll analyze your current website content (or lack thereof), identify what’s missing, and show you exactly what content would drive the most leads for your specific business—no commitment required.
Give us a call at (406) 219-6487. Three months from now, you could be getting consistent leads from content that works around the clock. Or you could still be wondering why your competitors’ phones are ringing and yours isn’t. Your move.
